Orlando is a touring programme which mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and guitarist Sean Shibe brought to Koerner hall on Thursday evening. For some background on the show see my interview with Ema earlier this month. As promised it was more of an “experience” than a conventional song recital. The overarching theme, sometimes obvious, sometimes less so, was Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.
I sat down with mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska this morning to talk about her upcoming show at Koerner Hall with guitarist Sean Shibe. It’s a touring show that’s being seen in multiple cities across Europe and North America and Ema was very clear that she sees it as an “experience” and “not a song recital”. So let’s take a step back and look at how it came into existence and then evolved into what we will be able to experience later this month.
Music – concerts and opera
My review of the Château de Versailles Spectacles recording of Rameau’s Pygmalion and Iso’s Zémide featuring, among others, Ema Nikolovska is now up at Opera Canada.
Mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska made her Koerner Hall recital debut on Sunday afternoon just twenty-six years after first enrolling at the Royal Conservatory of Music. It was clearly an emotional occasion for her and justified the barely choked back tears in her introduction. The emotion though did not negatively affect her singing which was notable for, among other things, great control; emotionally and technically.
First some additional February shows
Opera
Sometimes the Canadian Opera Company gets it right and the current production of Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen is a good example. It’s got all the things that might help boost a flagging audience. It’s not over familiar. Nobody is going to be complaining that they have seen the same old boring production five times already. It’s a brilliant score. The production is intelligent with enough for those who want more than a costume drama while not doing anything to shock the pearl clutchers. It’s well sung; with a goodly quantity of local talent, and the orchestral playing and conducting is exemplary. What more could one ask for? One could I suppose add that it’s an opera one could happily take children to.
